The Six: Complete Series (23 page)

The blonde woman walked over to the phone and placed her foot over it. “Is that right?”

Benjamin nodded. “It turned off on its own.”

“On its own,” she said with a grin. “So it also attempted to dial out forty-one times all its own as well?”

Benjamin’s confident gaze deteriorated as she spoke.

“Yes. We aren’t stupid. Do you think we’d give you a piece of electronics and not monitor it?”

Milo had figured as such but the two hours Benjamin sat with the phone with no interference from them seemed like a relief. It was like they had given them a chance, however impossible, to escape.

She pointed to her leather boot that hovered inches over the phone. “If this phone is destroyed, your device activates,” she said as she pointed to Dennis.

Her foot held strong over the screen.

“Dennis, hon?”

Dennis nervously looked up.

“Did you try to use the phone?”

He shook his head.

“Who did?”

The tension in the room rose immediately. Milo wasn’t going to say anything and Benjamin obviously wouldn’t turn himself in.

“No one.”

Her foot got closer to the phone. “Are you sure?”

Dennis tentatively answered, “Yes.”

His eyes darted over to Benjamin who sat motionless, petrified to get any attention from the woman with her foot over the button.

“Well,” she said, “I don’t think it tried to use itself. Did it Milo?”

His heart fell to the bottom of his stomach. This was Dennis’ fight. He had nothing to do with it. “Yes ma’am,” he murmured.

“So, it stands to reason that one of you tried to use it. Now I don’t care
why
you did it, I just need someone to be punished.”

Her foot lowered closer.

Dennis began to whimper. “Please don’t.”

“C’mon,” Milo said.

“I really don’t have a choice,” she said. “I’m not asking a lot.”

Dennis began to crawl towards her. “I didn’t do it.”

“Then who did?”

He wouldn’t tell. Milo would have given Benjamin away in the blink of an eye, but he wasn’t going to hurt Dennis.

“I can’t...”

The woman shrugged. “I’m sorry. This one’s going to hurt.”

Milo went to pull the woman off the phone but it was too late. She rose her knee just high enough and slammed the screen with the bottom of her heel. Immediately the glass cracked and broke into hundreds of tiny shards.

At first nothing happened. Each of them looked at the phone that lay with its electrical innards exposed. Then there was a click, a buzz and Dennis fell to the ground.

There was no sound but his guttural screams. His entire body rose and fell violently as he grasped for support that was not there. As he thrashed against the floor, Benjamin broke. “Me. I did it!” he shouted.

The woman looked over for just a second. “Is that right?”

“Yes!” Benjamin said. “Stop this!”

“As you wish,” she said. The guard next to her held up the button that lay in his hand.

Of course, Milo realized, there was nothing on that phone. It was a trick.

Dennis stopped fidgeting. He fell to the ground in a heap with his body contorted at odd angles. There was no sense of life in his body.

“What did you do?” shrieked Milo.

Benjamin was in tears. “It was me.”

The guard stuck the device back in his pocket. “Bring him back?”

“Yes,” she said. “Bring him back.”

He pulled out a different device. This one was a polished silver and larger than the simple kill switch. He pressed a button and Dennis’ chest flew up.

They all stared at the lifeless man on the floor. “Again,” she muttered.

Again his body skittered across the floor like a startled cockroach. The woman walked over and placed her finger against the side of his neck. She silently nodded to the man with the switch and he walked out of the room leaving just her and her captors.

“Is he dead?” Milo asked. His heart beat like a yo-yo in his chest. He looked dead but he looked bad before they stopped his heart so there was no telling.

She smiled. “No. He’s fine. Just keep an eye on him.”

As she backed away, Milo crawled to Dennis’ side. He was cold and stiff but his eyeballs skittered beneath his lids as he lay. There was a small part of him that had wanted to believe this was fake. In his dreams, those things in their chests were empty threats and they had no real control over their bodies. But this proved he was wrong. They had the power in their hands.

“Dennis?” Milo whispered.

Dennis groaned as his eyes opened slightly.

“You alright?”

He groaned again and shook his head.

“It’ll be okay.” Milo grabbed some water and tilted a sip into Dennis’ mouth. A few drops made it past his lips.

***

Irene walked out of the room and barely held in the disgust she had in her heart. Frederick waited for her at the end of the hallway. She couldn’t let him see her cry. He was watching. He was always watching.

“Any news on her?” she asked.

Frederick shook his head. “Eduardo’s still out. Hasn’t checked in yet.”

He stood there in silence as he looked down the hallway where the other guard was walking away. She had wanted to make friends with them but the guards never stayed with her longer than they had to.

That is except Eduardo. He was different. He’d been there as long as she had. It was just the two of them for months. At first he wouldn’t leave his room so she’d stay with him and let him cry and scream until he couldn’t speak anymore. His family was gone and even she didn’t know where they were.

Marie was still out which meant she hadn’t failed yet. That also meant that wouldn’t have to go back to that damn basement for a few more hours.

She went through the hallways and up the stairs until she got to her room. He’d put her in a small room on the second floor with no one around her, not a soul. The kitchen was right underneath her feet and the boss was above her. If she was quiet, she could hear him walk across his room.

There wasn’t much of her own in the room. Before she left home, she’d only brought a small bag of clothes and a pair of hoop earrings. Everything else was provided by him. After years, he still didn’t know what she liked. Everything was sterile and metallic, just like him.

Irene peeled off the new heels he’d bought to her a few weeks ago. They were a size too small but he liked the way they looked on her. She collapsed onto the bed and tried to let the day fade away. She didn’t feel like watching TV. It reminded her too much of home. Irene flipped on the radio as a Mozart concerto floated across the room.

Just as her head hit the pillow, the telephone rang. Since it only took incoming calls and only he was the only one with the number, she knew who was on the other end. She just didn’t want to speak with him. Not after what he made her do to Dennis.

With a heavy hand, she picked it up. “Yes?”

“Come up, please,” a deep voice uttered.

She wedged her feet back into the heels and took a few stilted footsteps before she made her way back in the hall and up the quick flight of stairs to the 3rd floor. The doors opened up to right outside his office.

Silence. It was always silent when she went to see him. No matter what he watched, it was always in complete enraptured silence. He didn’t even look up as she walked in. There he sat, at his desk, simultaneously watching three screens at once. The feed from Eduardo’s car played on a small corner of the middle computer. On the same screen she saw Marie dressed in a lab coat and a tight black dress.

“What do you need?”

He wore a black suit that fit tight across his body. Lately he’d been letting his hair grow gray because he thought it made him look distinguished. For a man of his age, which was about thirty-five, it made him look tired but she never dared tell him so.

His eyes slowly peeled away from the screens. “Love the dress. Brings out your ass.” He laughed at his own joke. His language used to disgust her but that was long ago. She’d long since stopped being offended.

“What is it?” she asked again.

He cleared his throat and raised his eyes to meet hers. “I understand you made a deal with one of them.” He spoke slowly, like she was a child.

With her head bowed, she said, “Yes. I thought it made sense.”

“Look at me when you speak,” he barked.

He was handsome but when he got angry he snarled like a rabid dog. It was his smile and his charm that had attracted her to him in the first place. They met at a wine bar after her boyfriend left early and, for some reason, she decided to stay. He bought her a merlot and they talked for hours before he walked her home. They’d dated for three weeks and barely left each other’s side that whole time. One night he showed up at her door with two plane tickets and a bouquet of white roses. He told her that he loved her and wanted to whisk her off to Rome for a romantic getaway. She knew she’d regret it if she didn’t take him up on the offer. It felt unreal.

It wasn’t until he brought her to his mansion in the middle of the country did she realize it was all a lie. Three years. She’d been in this home for three years and she wasn’t sure if she had ever loved him or if she was just too scared to run.

“Yes?”

He got up from his desk and walked over to her. At over six feet, he towered over her. “What did we say about you promising them things?”

Her body tingled as he ran a hand down her cheek. “Don’t do it,” she said, meekly.

“Remember what happened to Frank?”

She resisted the urge to slap him. “Don’t mention him.”

“Baby, don’t get mad. I just don’t want you to fuck up again.”

They’d burnt his house down. He’d let Frank go after she’d promised him his freedom. She never thought he’d get through all five jobs. No one had ever gotten past three. After he did it, she felt it was only right to let him.

The boss was furious. He locked her in her room for a week without food. Each night he’d come in and take her by the arm and throw her to the ground. Some days he’d stop at shouting and throwing. Once she got too weak to fight back, he’d hold her down on the bed. After his belt buckle slapped against the frame, she’d shut her eyes and pretend she was with the man she’d thought she’d married and not this monster.

She never thought he’d find out about this one.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

His fingers dug beneath the neckline of her shirt and tickled the sensitive skin below her throat. “Nothing,” he said.

“Nothing?”

They drifted down to her chest. Irene was too afraid to move. “You had a point,” he said. “A big missing persons case does arouse suspicion. I had Eduardo move her. No trace back and the story’s over.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “You did? So you’re going to tell him?”

His breath rolled across her neck as he kissed her lightly. “We are.”

As she finally felt her tension fall away, Irene went to embrace him. Before she could, his hand wrapped around her neck and squeezed. Irene gasped for breath as he tightened his fingers. “Stop,” she wheezed.

“Don’t ever do that again.”

She pushed at his chest but he was far stronger than her. “I won’t,” she said. The tears dripped down her cheek as she desperately tried to escape. As his grip strengthened, her breaths became less fulfilling. Soon she just took in wisps of air as he snarled inches away from her face. Just as the room began to fade, his hand pulled away.

Irene fell to her knees in front of him and gasped for air. All she could see were his expensive shoes that taunted her from his hand-woven carpet.

“I’m sorry,” she said as her voice came out thready and hoarse.

He turned on his heels and walked away. “You know the rules, baby.”

“I do. I’m sorry.”

She struggled to her feet and took a few unsteady steps towards him. “Is there anything else?” she asked.

The three screens blinked with images from jobs both old and new. His eyes didn’t even look up at her to see how she was doing. He had that smile he only got when something good happened. “Look,” he said as he pointed at the middle screen.

Irene wiped a tear stuck in the corner of her eye. There was nothing she hated more than looking at his screens. It was a never-ending display of depravity and dishonesty. It felt dirty to sit at a desk and stare at a stranger’s private life. The boss never had to see these people again, but Irene had to walk into that room and speak to these people everyday.

She fought to leave Dennis alone. He had a beautiful wife and he was so excited to become a father. For weeks she’d sat on the boss’ lap and watched Dennis set up the crib and paint the nursery while he watched Milo explode the car on another screen. He’d even sent Dennis’ feed down to her room so she could “research” him better. She loved to watch him. Dennis was the kind of man she thought she’d end up with: dutiful, loving and loyal. That’s why she wanted him out of the program. He wasn’t the man the boss said he was back in the old days. He had changed.

It didn’t matter. In the end, he not only chose to take Dennis, but did so at the most painful moment. She couldn’t believe he’d actually had Eduardo and Frederick go into the hospital while his wife was having the baby. It was unconscionable. She watched them take him from her room and she couldn’t stop crying. Her heart broke as his wife sat in the delivery room, alone, and delivered their little boy without her husband at her side.

The screen he pointed to was of Marie. She wasn’t doing the plan, per se, but he still seemed delighted. The woman sauntered across the lab with confidence and the other scientists didn’t so much as look at her.

“This is amazing. She’s been dumping chemicals and mixing things for the last ten minutes right under their noses. Amazing,” he said as he squealed with glee.

Irene forced a smile. “Has she finished yet?”

He patted his knee. “Sit. Watch with me.”

She wanted to run. She knew she should leave but she didn’t and she never would. As much as she hated him, she couldn’t leave him either. He was all she had. Irene sat lightly on his knee and watched Marie grab a series of beakers from next to a distracted young man. She then pointed to the other side of the lab and the man dutifully went where she asked.